Zucchini Turkey Meatballs with Smoky Yogurt Sauce

These zucchini turkey meatballs will take a bland meat and make it flavorful using ingredients that, by themselves, might make a nice salad. The choice is yours: you could eat a salad–or, you could eat a salad inside a meatball.

I’ll be honest: turkey is not my favorite kind of meat. Especially ground turkey. If it stays in the fridge more than a day it starts to taste gamey, and it’s definitely not foolproof like ground red meat. But 85% lean ground turkey is perfect for these light and flavorful meatballs, since its blandness allows the veggies, herbs, spices, and cheese to shine. They come out pleasantly bouncy and ready to be dipped in a yogurt sauce with a tang and flavor all its own.

Speaking of secret sauce, this yogurt dip doesn’t cool the palette, it fires it up! I love it for this reason. The sour cream makes it a little extra creamy, which is perfect with the roasted flavor of smoked paprika and the tanginess of lemon juice.

How do you make zucchini turkey meatballs that don’t fall apart?

Glad you asked. I sourced my inspiration from Lisa Goldfinger’s blog post who was inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe, which I think is this one for turkey & courgette “burgers.” I liked the basic idea, but when commenters said the meatballs wouldn’t stay together, I knew I had to take matters into my own hands…

• First, I squeezed the water out of the grated zucchini before adding it to the meat. I’d learned this trick from trying to make a cross between Greek zucchini pie and quiche (a complete disaster…but at least it led to good meatballs!)
• Additionally, I added ½ cup breadcrumbs. This made the meatballs less dense and more airy.
• Finally, I upped the eggs to two instead of one for a little extra binding.

All of the above worked like a charm, and I ended up with meatballs that held together perfectly.

Other changes to the original recipe

Back to meatball basics: breadcrumbs and Parmesan

The novelty of these burgers turned “meatballs” was that they didn’t have any of the traditional ingredients we find in meatballs. But why mess with a classic? I added back a few classic meatball ingredients, like breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Of course, because I increased the cheese, I also decreased the salt content.

More herbs

Never enough herbs. I doubled the mint and coriander. I was not sorry for more flavor, and neither will you be.

A tangier, smokier sauce

I made this recipe twice last week. The first time, I followed the original sauce recipe. Personally I found it a bit bland. I’d subbed whole milk plain yogurt for Greek yogurt, so that’s probably why. In order to modify based on what I had on hand, I increased the lemon juice and added more spices for robust flavor.

Instead of frying zucchini turkey meatballs, use the air frier or oven

Fried food and I are best friends. Have you seen my post on beignets? That said, I didn’t have the patience to panfry 20 meatballs only to put them in the oven on this particular night. I’m glad I didn’t, since I discovered an easier version of this dish. But if you want the fried version, feel free to follow the original recipe!

How to cook the meatballs in the air frier…

Simply add the meatballs to an air frier preheated to 370 degrees and cook for 20-25 minutes or until fully cooked through.

How to cook the meatballs in the oven…

Add the meatballs to a 400-degree oven and cook for 30-35 minutes or until fully cooked through.

The full recipe, step-by-step

If you’re using the oven, preheat it to 400 degree. If you’re using the air frier, preheat it to 370 degrees.

Grate a whole zucchini. Over a colander, squeeze out all the moisture until the zucchini barely drips.

Add the squeezed zucchini and the rest of the meatball ingredients–chopped mint, cilantro, and scallions, breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan, grated garlic, salt, cumin, cayenne pepper, and black pepper–to a large bowl. Mix until well blended.

Form meatballs that are one and a half inch in diameter. Place them in the air frier basket or on a cookie sheet lined with a metal grate or parchment paper.

Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or in the air frier for 20-25 minutes.

While the meatballs are baking/frying, mix all the ingredients for the smoky yogurt dressing: ¼ cup plain whole milk yogurt, ¼ cup sour cream, ¼ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 grated clove of garlic, and the juice of ½ of a lemon. Whisk well together.

Enjoy this recipe!

Looking for a vegan version? Try this recipe for falafel.

Want something else to dip it in? Try one of these recipes.

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think!

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